1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to window coverings having a stack of cellular material attached between a headrail and a bottom rail in which the material is formed from physically similar remnant pieces of cellular fabric.
2. State of the Art
One common type of window covering has a panel of cellular material connected between a headrail and a bottom rail. These window coverings are sold in standard stock sizes and are custom made by fabricators. The fabricators buy standard headrails, bottom rails and related hardware as well as stacks or blankets of cellular fabrics. The fabricators measure the windows to be covered. Then they select or cut down a standard headrail and bottom rail for each window and cut a panel of material from the blanket which is the correct width and length for the window. Quite often the fabricator will have segments of these blankets which are too small to use. Some of these segments may be as much as twelve feet wide and only three feet long. Typically, this left-over fabric is discarded.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,864 Jones discloses a method and apparatus for combining segments of cellular material to form a composite window covering. If necessary, the short segments to be interconnected are trimmed to a uniform width consistent with the width of a window area to be covered. Thereafter, a cell of each short length to be connected is trimmed to provide a neat attachment surface strip. Glue beads are run along each edge of each attachment surface strip of the short length of cellular fabric to be attached, and the glue covered attachment surface is pressed against a clean (non-glued) attachment surface strip of a short receiving length to which attachment is to be made. Pressure is released after initial bonding has occurred. The resulting bond between the two segments is thus comprised of two original glue lines, two strips of fabric and the new glue beads. This bond will be twice or three times the thickness of the bonds between all other cells in the combined stack and is quite noticeable. Consequently, there is a need for a method of combining segments of cellular and pleated materials in a manner so that the resulting structure has a uniform appearance.